The mayor and her majority-making candidates

On Election Day Eve, we can only pray that enough local voters are paying attention to the attempts to mislead the public and radically change the city.

There are two distinct factions in this important election (see: https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/30/opinion-team-urban-plan-for-ptc-vs-team-save-our-planning-and-quality-of-life/).

In the last two local elections, the voters have made two solid choices with Councilmen Frank Destadio and Clint Holland. Unfortunately, their hands have been tied by the current majority of Mayor Kim Learnard and Councilmen Mike King and Phil Prebor.

The mayor is forcing the issue

Learnard has two years remaining in her term and she is in full panic mode on the possibility of losing her pro-urbanization majority. She has two candidates in the election: Vic Painter and Tamara Moore.

Learnard has tried to create some distance between herself, her candidates, and the political action committee behind all of them, Plan for PTC. Learnard began a misinformation campaign that consisted of accusing her critics of creating misinformation about the misinformation Learnard propagates about her candidates (see: https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/31/letter-misinformation-by-omission-is-still-misinformation/). Bizarre, I know.

Yes, Plan for PTC supports densely stacked multi-family complexes. They favored the absurd development proposal of Calistoa with 350 apartments and 27 townhomes at the end of our local airport’s runway (see: https://thecitizen.com/2019/05/14/calistoa-in-rezoning-request-stakes-claim-as-mini-village/) and others. And, yes, Plan for PTC is connected to Learnard and her candidates Painter and Moore.

Learnard insists she and her candidates are not in favor of the development proposals of redeveloping sites in the village centers and city-owned greenspaces for large multi-family complexes. Of course, when the Vanessa Fleisch administration removed the decades-old city moratorium on new apartment construction, Learnard never objected and stayed silent on it when she campaigned.

When the city government developed the most disastrous development plan in the city’s history, the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI), Learnard went to the LCI meetings but never objected. Learnard has claimed that a large number of large apartments, townhomes, and condominium complexes were never in the plans.

The obvious truth

There are 6,200 of your fellow readers who already know the truth about how the city government attempted to deceive our citizens and move ahead on the appalling plans (see: https://thecitizen.com/2020/11/01/lci-meeting-insult-to-peachtree-city-residents/). And, yes, the plans included building large multi-family complexes on city parkland and the site of the Tennis Center.

Of course, the most obvious sign that Learnard’s candidates Painter and Moore are up to no good is their refusal to answer the question from The Citizen to all the candidates (see: https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/16/opinion-what-candidates-tamara-moore-and-vic-painter-are-hoping-you-dont-discover/). The three comrades began a deflection campaign, saying The Citizen was biased and no longer a legitimate publication. The irony here is that the candidates sent letters to the editor of The Citizen which the same “biased” editor published.

There is that nagging little omission too that candidate Moore was one of the founders of the political action committee Plan for PTC. Both Moore and Painter received large campaign contributions from Chairperson Emily Winkle of Plan for PTC. Why would Moore not want us to know this?

Peachtree City is a well-educated community, so you read The Citizen questions cited here and determine why you believe Painter and Moore refused to answer the questions (see the question here: https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/05/questions-for-peachtree-city-council-candidates-from-the-citizen/).

They oppose our traditional planning

Yes, indeed, there was the email that candidate Tamara Moore accidentally sent to all the candidates by mistake saying that she and Vic Painter support the pro-urbanization policy. Moore responded to development planner Stephanie Wagner’s letter published in The Citizen in favor of more apartments and mixed-use multi-family units over retail centers. It appeared that Wagner penned the pro-urbanization letter at the behest of candidate Moore, as she told Wagner, “I need to get in and so does Vic or this city is in big trouble.”

The “big trouble” is current Councilmen Destadio and Holland who publicly oppose the urbanization and favor our traditional award-winning city planning. In what was supposed to be hush-hush, Moore did not hold back on what she thought of Destadio and Holland and their opposition to more dense stacked multi-family complexes, saying, “The council with the mild exception of the Mayor are so narrow minded and judgmental we have become the laughing stock of the metro area.”

Naturally, Learnard refuses to opine on Moore’s private email made public. Painter and Moore have done everything possible to deflect and deny. Still, as I said before, we all know why the pair refused to answer The Citizen’s questions on building dense stacked multi-family housing across the city.

Admittedly, it is incredibly difficult for Moore and Painter to explain why the individuals promoting the urbanization effort have their campaign yard signs and write them hefty campaign checks.

Former mayoral candidate Socialist Democrat Nick Ferrante proudly displays the Moore and Painter yard signs along with his trademark Bubble is Magic sign in his front yard. Moore has mentioned Ferrante’s vision of “entertainment districts” where he desired more bars, nightclubs, and open-container alcohol in all the village centers open to the wee hours of the night.

The better choices

Honestly, almost everyone moved to Peachtree City for the same reasons. The choice between the two factions is not difficult.

Learn about the three pro-traditional land planning candidates and select the one that best represents your family’s reasons for living in Peachtree City.

Post 1:

Here is the link for Eric Imker’s responses to the candidate questions: https://thecitizen.com/2023/10/13/eric-imker-answers-candidate-questions-from-the-citizen/

Here is the link for Laura Johnson’s responses to the candidate questions:

Laura P. Johnson answers candidate questions from The Citizen

Post 2:

Here is the link for Suzanne Brown’s (no relation) responses to the candidate questions:

Suzanne Brown answers candidate questions from The Citizen

Vote Tuesday at your local polling location. Thank you in advance for your participation.

[Brown is a former mayor of Peachtree City and served two terms on the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. You can read all his columns by clicking on his photo below.]